31/05: 12 travellers arrived to Turkish Cyprus from Lebanon

01.06.2022 / 15:29 / Eastern Med

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations –31st of May 2022

Case name: 2022_05_31-EasternMed909

Situation: 12 travellers leaving from Lebanon arrived to Turkish part of Cyprus

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Eastern Med

Summary of the Case: On Tuesday the 31st of May 2022, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a group of 12 travellers, including a child, who had left from Lebanon three days earlier, heading towards Cyprus. The relative had lost contact to the boat on Monday, and we were also unable to reach them. We immediately alerted the Lebanese and Turkish authorities case. However, they Turkish coastguard refused to launch a seach and rescue operation, as they assumed the boat was not in their search and rescue zone, whereas the Lebanese authorities refused to launch an operation as they said the information they had about the boat was insufficient. During the following day, we were not able to locate the travellers, and their families were becoming increasingly worried as time passed. On the 2nd of June, we learned from relatives that the boat had arrived to the Turkish part of Cyprus, but that one of the travellers had lost their life. Later, the Turkish coastguard confirmed that the travellers had been found by Turkish authorities.

Credibility:

Border police patrols
While the exact location of patrols is of course constantly changing, this line indicates the approximate boundary routinely patrolled by border guards’ naval assets. In the open sea, it usually correspond to the outer extent of the contiguous zone, the area in which “State may exercise the control necessary to prevent infringement of its customs, fiscal, immigration or sanitary laws” (UNCLOS, art. 33). Data source: interviews with border police officials.
Coastal radars
Approximate radar beam range covered by coastal radars operating in the frame of national marine traffic monitoring systems. The actual beam depends from several different parameters (including the type of object to be detected). Data source: Finmeccanica.
Exclusive Economic Zone
Maritime area beyond and adjacent to the territorial sea in which the coastal state exercises sovereign rights for the purposes of exploring and exploiting, conserving and managing the natural resources, whether living or non-living, the seabed and its subsoil and the superjacent waters. Its breadth is 200 nautical miles from the straight baselines from which the territorial sea is measured (UNCLOS, Arts. 55, 56 and 57). Data source: Juan Luis Suárez de Vivero, Atlas of the European Seas and Oceans
Frontex operations
Frontex has, in the past few years, carried out several sea operations at the maritime borders of the EU. The blue shapes indicate the approximate extend of these operations. Data source: Migreurop Altas.
Mobile phone coverage
Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network coverage. Data source: Collins Mobile Coverage.
Oil and gas platforms
Oil and gas platforms in the Mediterranean. Data source:
Search and Rescue Zone
An area of defined dimensions within which a given state is has the responsibility to co-ordinate Search and Rescue operations, i.e. the search for, and provision of aid to, persons, ships or other craft which are, or are feared to be, in distress or imminent danger. Data source: IMO availability of search and rescue (SAR) services - SAR.8/Circ.3, 17 June 2011.
Territorial Waters
A belt of sea (usually extending up to 12 nautical miles) upon which the sovereignty of a coastal State extends (UNCLOS, Art. 2). Data source: Juan Luis Suárez de Vivero, Atlas of the European Seas and Oceans